Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Apart from a few references in some of my University text-books, I have never really taken the time to find out much about Maslow. He is quoted for the hierarchy of needs probably more than anything else, and most of us know that research has since shown that the model is mostly useful because it is intuitive, but it is not quite correct in analysing human behaviour, because the fulfillment or lack of fulfillment of the lower order needs do not influence the need for the higher order needs in the strong way that he proposed. A beggar needs love, even though he might have no food or security.

However, I read a very interesting article about his hierarchy of needs, and about him as a person, and I realized that there is actually much more to it, than just the little that the text books quote and then promptly criticise.

I have heard many definitions of self-actualisation - and interestingly enough, all the literature I had ever read about Maslow, quoted his hierarchy and then promptly explained it without using Maslow's own definitions, and without adding much of what he really said and thought about this hierarchy.

Well, here is the defition that really got me thinking:
"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy," said Maslow. "What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization."

Think about that.

For the rest of the article that got me thinking - see http://www.spiritualwealth.com/
The name of the article is "Beyond Self Actualization" (like the Americans spell it. Was Maslow American? If he was, then the word is actualization. But if he wasn't - well - then it's actualisation.)